Exploring the Crossroads of Art, Craft, Reading, and Creative Writing with Alisa Golden

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Everything Matters, Now Compromise

Compromise is in the air. I can't pretend otherwise; let's see how it applies. Here I am moving along, creating something, and without warning I have to put on the brakes. Decision time. I have to make a choice which may be miniscule or enormous—either way it will affect my progress and the piece as a whole. It's a bit confusing to think that everything matters, that I may have to compromise, let something go, give something up.

Let's look at a visual chart of choices to consider while designing a book. Hang in there with me a minute.

Original desires are in yellow.

Problems are in red.

Decisions are in blue.

Let's say I want to make multiple copies of a handmade book on yellow paper and it has some kind of text. Now, notice how the original concept changes depending on the choices. These are hypothetical problems, examples to show what might happen. The green boxes exhibit four different outcomes.

Possible outcomes:

Left: sidebound book with thin paper, doubled, printed as I wanted it, but it won't open flat.

Right: accordion fold book with thick paper, printed as I wanted it, but it won't be yellow.

Bottom Left: one handmade copy, and multiple facsimiles, available at a lower cost to the readers.

Bottom Right: one handmade book or very small edition of handmade books, higher priced.

So you can see that all of the choices matter, but I may end up making a book that is different from the book I had in mind. In some way, it just might be better.

Another possibility is that I spend the time and make a large edition by hand.

A framework by Eli Goldratt that is used in business and engineering, known as the "triple constraint," involves problemsolving, and through it, compromise. One example is: "Good, fast, cheap: pick two." If you examine what we have looked at, you can see that our choices lead to those as well: binding (how the book handles/quality), labor (production time), cost of materials. Quality, time, cost. Still, we only get two. Something's gotta give. The choices all matter; they just aren't always easy.

I hate compromising and yet it is a stubborn companion to my life. It follows me close behind and often taps on my shoulder. Quite an impertinence, I know, but I've learned to keep calm :) As a newbie in handmade books, I face tough decisions (and make silly mistakes) all the time. I'm very pleased that your blog and books now follow me closely too, they make everything easier -and much more enjoyable.

Search This Blog

Followers

Translate

Subscribe To

Follow by Email

About Me

Alisa Golden is the author of Making Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures & Forms (Lark Crafts, 2011), and Painted Paper: Techniques & Projects for Handmade Books & Cards (Lark Books, 2008), among others. She makes books under the imprint never mind the press and teaches bookmaking and letterpress printing at California College of the Arts. She holds a BFA in printmaking from California College of Arts and Crafts (now CCA), and an MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University. Her stories, poems, and art have been published widely, and she founded and edits the online and print magazine, Star 82 Review.

Golden is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Earned fees are recycled back into books reviewed for blog posts.